Crown Princess Margareta is one of my favourite Swedish royals ever. And in her days, she was also highly admired by the people. But sadly enough, she's been a bit forgotten these days, with most people only caring about the royals of our time. Since I found no thread about her here at TRF either, I thought I'd write a bit about her so you can learn a little of whom she was.

In Memoriam of Darling Daisy

Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret Victoria Augusta Charlotte Norah of Connaught was born at Bagshot Park in Surrey in the United Kingdom on 15 January 1882. She was the daughter of His Royal Highness Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, Duke of Strathearn and Earl of Sussex (son of Her Majesty Queen Victoria and His Royal Highness Prince Albert The Prince Consort of the United Kingdom) and Her Royal Highness Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia (daughter of His Royal Highness Prince Friedrich and Her Royal Highness Princess Anna Maria of Prussia, née Princess of Anhalt).

While travelling with her family, the 23-year-old Princess Margaret met Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden in El Cairo in Egypt in the beginning of 1905. It was love at first sight, and Prince Gustaf Adolf proposed to her at a dinner held by Lord Cromer at the British Consulate in Egypt. The wedding celebrations were held at Windsor Castle where the two married on 15 June 1905 in St. George’s Chapel. It was only days after the dissolution of the union with Norway.

Princess Margaret of Connaught now became Princess of Sweden and Duchess of Skåne.

It was a happy family and the news Princess wad adored by her subjects. In 1907, after the death of King Oscar II, Crown Prince Gustaf became Gustaf V – and Prince Gustaf Adolf and Princess Margareta became Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Sweden.

In the end of 1919, Crown Princess Margareta got troubles with her ears, and this was only to be the beginning. The 37-year-old Crown Princess was expecting her sixth child, but after suffering from malignant chicken pox and a bad chill, the insides of her jaws began festering. On 1 May 1920, the 38-year-old and pregnant Crown Princess passed away.

The news spread fast through the city of Stockholm. Prime Minister Hjalmar Branting who was holding his 1 May speech on Gärdet, paused and announced to the crowd: “Our Crown Princess is dead”. He ended his speech quickly and then hurried to the Royal Palace of Stockholm. Once there, it is said that he took Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf in his arms with the words “Dear, dear, what has happened?”

Crown Princess Magareta is buried in the Royal Cemetery at Haga.

The Flower Princess - Margareta and Sofiero.

In 1905, The King and Queen gave Sofiero to their grandchild Prince Gustaf Adolf and Princess Margareta after their wedding. As the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, Princess Margareta had grown up at Bagshot Park in the United Kingdom – one of the times most worth-seeing parks. Her father, Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught, was himself a great landscaping gardener and was called “the country’s great, princely garden architect” by his countrymen. As a young girl, Margareta’s father hired a French artist, Madeleine Fleury (student of Claude Monet) as her teacher to encourage her artistic talents.

Princess Margareta became a pioneer to the gardening interest in Sweden. When she and her husband received Sofiero, it was decayed because no one had used it for a long time. She gave this description of it herself:“Once upon a time there was a palace, built in Skåne, and that has one of the most beautiful views in the world. But when we received Sofiero, there was hardly anything there of flowers and plants. The whole place instead seemed more like the enchanted woods, where the fairytale princess laid asleep. Maybe it was nice for her, but we wished for something else, something more, and as quickly as possible began to think how we would beautify the of nature already so beautifully situated estate.”

Margareta planned and laid the foundation for Sofiero’s grand park and gardens, and wrote a few books about it herself. She involved her children, the staff and the occasional guests in the gardening – and as it turned out, one of her children especially inherited this interest. Princess Ingrid, later Queen of Denmark, was the one who created the park of Graasten Castle in Denmark.

For the Baltic Exhibition in Malmö In 1914, the Crown Princess herself planted the beautiful flower walk in front of the royal pavilion, now the Margareta pavilion. Her work became of great importance to the Swedish garden developments, and during her life she got the name “flower princess”. She was very artistically talented, and besides the gardening, she was also a good photographer and painter. She often used motifs from Sofiero in her paintings, and many of her photographs show the children doing some gardening at Sofiero.

Crown Princess Margareta’s words of wisdom to success with a perennial flowerbed:

- Find the right place
- Show respect to the grounds, the cardinal points, and found of the flowerbed
- Let one and two year plants complement the perennials
- Let the earth appear as little as possible
- Place lower plants in front of higher ones
- The more you work with the plant’s mutual relationship in colour, forms and height, the more effect is achieved
- Don’t force the plants to things which are not necessary
- Place late blooming species on the most seen places, they look green and promising the whole summer, until their turn comes

Thank you for sharing this information about Crown Princess Margareta.

From the description of her life and also the pictures, she was a beautiful person. I can see why she&#39;s one of your favorites. It sounds like she did a lot of good in her short life....and she was sincerely missed.

Her statements about gardening are also interesting. Where did she garden ? Did she have influence on the design of any particular gardens ?

Crown Princess Margareta did her gardening at Sofiero, where she spent as much time as she could. But in the winter she had to go back to Stockholm and the Royal Palace there.

I don&#39;t think she had influence of any particular sort of gardens - it was merely the fact that she became a pioneer for gardening and sort of began the path to what gardening is today in Sweden (gardening is hugely popular).

The flower walk, the walled flower bed, the rhododendron and azalea plantations and many others at Sofiero, are all the fruit of the Crown Princess&#39; interest in gardening.

1: Crown Princess Margaretha’s children Prince Gustaf Adolf, Prince Sigvard, Prince Bertil and Princess Ingrid2: Crown Princess Margaretha’s children Prince Bertil and Princess Ingrid3: Crown Princess Margaretha doing some gardening4: Crown Princess Margaretha with her daughter Princess Ingrid5: Crown Princess Margaretha with her son Prince Bertil6: Crown Princess Margaretha7: Crown Princess Margaretha with one of her children8: A young Princess Margaret of Connaught (her name before the marriage)9: Crown Princess Margaretha with three of her children

1: One of Crown Princess Margaretha’s own paintings of Sofiero2: The wedding picture, 1905, just after the separation of Norway from Sweden3: A young Princess Margaret of Connaught (her name before the marriage) and her sister Princess Patricia of Connaught4: Famous Swedish painter Anders Zorn’s portrait of Crown Princess Margaretha

post 7 pic 1 > it's not hard to see from whom Queen Margrethe of Denmark got her talent.

Thank you so much Grand Duchess for this wonderful thread. Partly thanks to Crown Princess Margaretha we have two wonderful royal families in Sweden and Denmark. I've certainly never forgotten about her !!!

She seemed much more happy and content with her life in Sweden than the English princess Maud, who became princess of Denmark and Queen of Norway also in the beginning of the 20th century.

I've seen the television programme where the old Bernadotte brothers (Margareta's sons) talk about their happy summers at Sofiero.

In my opinion it's a bit sad that the current royal family in Sweden doesn't use other royal castles than those in Stockholm and Solliden on Öland. They ought to have one in Göteborg and Helsingborg as well.

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''A day without a laughter is a day wasted'' // Anna-Lisa

Thank you very much, GrandDuchess, for all this information. Crown Princess Margareta had a very interesting, albeit short, life. It's sad she died at that age, and while pregnant. I love how she has left a lasting legacy; she has a rose named after her (which is very beautiful, by the way). Does anyone know if there is a book about her? I've tried looking but all I get is links to the roses. This is a fantastic photo (well, they all are, but this is one of my favourites): http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums...0&d=1102900036

Queen Ingrid must have been terribly saddened to lose both her mother and her brother at such young ages.

__________________"One thing we can do is make the choice to view the world in a healthy way. We can choose to see the world as safe with only moments of danger rather than seeing the world as dangerous with only moments of safety."

Thank you very much for the book titles. I really appreciate it. It's a shame I can't read Swedish though. I'll have a look to see if maybe they have been translated.

Danielle,

Only the books (In Our Garden and The Garden Which We Made) which Margaret herself wrote on Sofiero have been translated in English. The book written by Staffan Tjerneld called Darling Daisy hasn't been translated into English. But, if you can get your hands on the Swedish version I would highly recommend it. It has tons of pictures of Daisy, before marriage and after. Just like you, I can't read Swedish either but just for the pictures the book was well worth the price paid for it. Also, there is another book called Sveriges Kronprinsessa Margareta by Lotte Dalhgren and Julia Svedelius, kinda rare and hard to get your hands on but also well worth it.

Staffan Jerneld's book is obviously available from the library, maybe I should go and get it. It's 164 pages. I was always interested in Queen Ingrid's mother and her early childhood. I think I've read somewhere that poor Ingrid didn't get along with her father's second wife, Louise. They got a better relationship as Ingrid grew older but it's of course not easy for a little girl to lose her mother and someone new steps in.

Here's a translator for those of you who want to immediately translate to / from Swedish / English. It's not the world's most powerful translator, and it's of course not possible to translate a whole book, but for everyday life (like here) it's priceless for me. (and it's for free).

Margareta is my "royal favourite". Why do you think my name on this board i Margareta...?:)
In Staffan Tjernelds book it tells about Margaretas friend Claire Sheridan(if I remember right). I think she has written her memoirs and he quotes her. Has someone got hold of that book?

The King later married Louise Mountbatten and she became Queen Louise.

__________________"One thing we can do is make the choice to view the world in a healthy way. We can choose to see the world as safe with only moments of danger rather than seeing the world as dangerous with only moments of safety."